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All about evidence-based policing

What is EBP?

Evidence-based policing (EBP) is the philosophy and practice of using the best available research evidence to guide and evaluate decisions in policing. It's not about replacing experience or professional judgment but enhancing them with rigorous and relevant research. EBP can inform anything and everything from crime prevention strategies to organisational policies.

The main principles of EBP include:

· Using scientific methods to evaluate what works, what doesn’t, and why.

· Emphasising prevention of crime, harm, demand, and efficiency of practice by ensuring resources are allocated to the most effective practices as established by those scientific methods

· Applying evidence across all levels of policing, from frontline officers to senior leaders, support staff to volunteers, suppliers to governing bodies.

As you will see from this guidance and other resources, EBP is not black and white. There is no manual which says ‘you must do this to achieve that’. Research evidence is sometimes complicated, limited or simply doesn’t exist.

Being ‘evidence-based’ doesn’t mean slavishly following a set of rules, it means using evidence to inform decisions.

What is the case against EBP?

Critical thinking is a cornerstone of any evidence based philosophy, including EBP. Simply put, don’t take anything for granted. With that in mind, it’s only right we ask “what evidence is there that EBP works?”. Aside from being a bit ‘meta’, this question is valid and no true EBP advocate would say otherwise.

Many commentators and researchers have made arguments against using evidence-based philosophies in policing. Justifications range from:

· The focus of EBP is too narrow

· Policing activity cannot be measured through statistics

· There is an over-emphasis on quantitative research

· Evidence cannot really be sorted into a hierarchy

· No police force really has the time to do this

· Research in one place cannot be generalised to another

· Police data are not good enough to support these methods

· EBP shackles professional discretion

· Policing only requires common sense and all this academic nonsense is a waste of time

And there are more arguments we might add. Each of them has a justification (apart from the last one perhaps) worth considering. You won’t be surprised to learn that at SEBP, we don’t agree with any of these but in the spirit of the philosophy we propose we urge you to make your own mind up.

How does EBP relate to other models of policing?

Policing is traditionally full of fashionable new initiatives and it might be tempting to think of EBP in this way. That would be wrong. EBP as a ‘brand’ might be something that comes and goes but behind the scenes EBP is just a manifestation of scientific process applied to policing. That existed long before EBP was thought up. The scientific process goes all the way back to the Renaissance although historians would likely point to the relatively more recent developments of sociology and criminology as the roots of EBP.

In this way, EBP is quite separate from all of the other models we might think of but that is not to say it isn’t worth considering how they might be related.

Intelligence-led policing (ILP)

ILP is centred on the use of data (intelligence) through analysis to produce plans of action, which should be evaluated. There are prescribed techniques for collecting, collating and analysing information. In these senses, ILP shares some features with EBP but the focus and the detail are quite different. ILP is primarily concerned with criminal threat assessments. It seeks to direct policing practice in a narrower sphere than EBP (for example, ILP would not apply to recruitment and retention but EBP might). The methods used for analysis are also generally less rigorous than in EBP and often don’t take as long to complete.

Problem-oriented policing (POP)

Like ILP, POP also advocates analysing data to inform police actions. It also advocates for testing those actions to check for impact. POP is specifically focussed on micro problems and while it is data-centric, it also prioritises the voice of the community and partner-police-public based responses. In this way it is more of a philosophy for tactical practices in a particular area (usually small-scale community problems) than a framework that can be applied strategically. EBP encompasses POP and there have been studies on the effectiveness of the technique.

National decision model (NDM)

NDM is a generic approach to making individual decisions - find out more on the College of Policing website.

You can make a good case for how EBP might inform decisions made in this framework. When assessing threat and risk, the decision maker might ask ‘how good are these methods for assessing threat and risk’ (there are studies on this sort of thing – for example the DASH has been studied numerous times). Evidence might also inform the policies, options and contingencies that the decision maker considers. How that happens, particularly in dynamic situations, is complicated.

Community/Neighbourhood policing

Community policing advocates for strengthening ties with the communities being policed to improve legitimacy, trust and confidence. It is a technique which might be tested (indeed, it has been at times) using an EBP framework.

Wondering about other models and how they relate to EBP? Give us a shout and we’ll add to this page.

Where does EBP originate from?

EBP draws inspiration from evidence-based medicine (EBM), which emerged in the 1990s to improve clinical decisions. Similarly, EBP aims to address inefficiencies, biases, and outdated or ineffective practices in policing. Similar philosophies exist in education, human resources and management where the connecting idea is ‘how can we do this better?’

Milestones in the development of EBP:

· 1998: American Professor Lawrence Sherman introduces the idea of EBP, advocating for experiments and data-driven practices in policing.

· 2000s: EBP gains traction in the UK, Australia, and the US.

· 2010s: The modernisation of police data and computing capacity, and the rise of practitioner-academic collaborations expand EBP's reach. Several organised EBP groups emerge (the Societies of Evidence Based Policing).

· 2020s: Artificial intelligence and advanced analytics further innovate EBP methodologies.

Today, EBP is prevalent in many countries. In the UK it is a key part of the College of Policing’s mission and is referred to by the Home Office, His Majesty’s Inspectorate and the National Police Chief’s Council. There is no national oversight of evidence-based policing though – it is not something that is ‘owned’ by any single party.